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FICO Starts Monitoring Social Networks

Infoglide acquisition expands credit monitor's ability to know who you are and what you're up to.

Fair Isaac Corporation (NYSE:FICO), the company behind the credit reports of the same ticker name, is widening the lens through which it peers at consumer behavior. On Monday, it announced that it has bought social network analysis company Infoglide Software for an undisclosed sum.

Infoglide's technology searches for "suspicious information in an insurance claim or financial transaction, then [makes] links with other transactions to expose otherwise invisible patterns," explained CEO Will Lansing in a statement describing the acquisition. Infoglide described the software as helping to "identify non-obvious relationships," while at the same time avoiding mistakes by helping to eliminate false-positive results.

Fair Isaac intends to use this technology to "improve fraud detection, security and compliance." The company further noted that Infoglide's customers in government give it "a strong foothold" in that sector as well, where government agencies use Infoglide's software to root out fraud by corporate insiders, uncover money laundering schemes, and even unearth terrorist networks.

Shares of Fair Isaac fell 2.7% in Monday trading to $44.45, before the Infoglide acquisition was announced.

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